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Bronx River Golden Ball
Temporary Installation |
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| Gold Ball - Canoe |
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| Location: |
Bronxville to Hunts Point, NY |
| Client: | National Park Service Rivers and Trails Program |
| Materials: | Fiberglass, gold leaf, canoes, net, mirrors |
| Budget: | $13,500 |
| Collaborators: | Partnership for Parks, Arthur Aviles - Dance, Connie Grossman - Flute |
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| The Golden Ball is a universal, positive image that can be seen as the sun, the world, energy, life; it also encourages different people to invent stories about it, to add their own mythology. This temporary, multi-media art event was designed to tie together the fractured experience of the Bronx River; to bring together the complex layers of people and artifacts that exist along the length of the river and use the Bronx River as a metaphor and physical link for a greater community.
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| Acting as a Pied Piper, the 32 inch gilded ball floated down the river from suburban Bronxville to inner-city South Bronx as a one day treck on 24 April 1999. People from the Bronx and from Westchester County were encoraged to walk the 10 mile route and learn how the river connects their homes. |
Landing - Hunts Point |
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| Golden Ball Route 1999 |
The Keepers of the Ball, including the artists and flutist Connie Grossman, accompanied the ball along its journey on the river while the Arthur Aviles Typical Theater followed along the shore with an original, improv dance-walk. The Golden Ball and its Keepers stopped along the way to join a series of community celebrations at key points and traverse the Bronx Botanical Gardens and the Bronx Zoo.
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Reflection |
People at the events were given small round mirrors to aim sunlight at the Ball. The voyage revealed the prime places that are available for social gathering as well as the access problems and obstacles that will have to be addressed by the communities, not only for this event but for the future. The ball will be displayed during the year and will return for another annual voyage in 2000. |
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| At the Botanical Gardens |
3 Dancers Following the Route |
All Photos by Beckett Logan |
 
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